Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Yes. My officials spoke to the CEO of Connacht Gold today. If farmers or buyers groups can source fodder from the United Kingdom, they should do so through their co-op. I understand the co-ops will try to facilitate them in drawing down the subsidy.

A two-pronged issue arises in respect of horses. First, horses are left to forage for themselves in fields lacking grass and, second, blatant cruelty is evident in some cases. We are trying to act on this issue. My Department has never been as busy in this area, not only because people are reporting more but also because we are taking a more proactive and aggressive approach. We work with local authorities and culling is happening in some cases where animals are in such an emaciated state that the humane thing to do is to put them out of their misery. However, a property rights issue arises because these animals are owned by somebody. The State cannot simply confiscate them and put them down before going through a process. In some cases animals are claimed by their owners after we pick them up only to be picked up again a couple of weeks later. This is a difficult issue to address. We have new legislation with the Animal Health and Welfare Bill 2012 which will be enacted presently.

By the start of next month we will also have our new, centralised database for horses in place. That will not be the perfect system but is the first step towards a much better system whereby the agencies that can grant passports will all contribute to a central database. We will have that central database and will then move onto the next step to continue to improve that system. That will help us to know who owns the animals and where they are. We have learned many lessons during the horsemeat scandal and we have done much thinking about how we can improve the area of horse identification and passports, although that was not directly linked to the horsemeat scandal but was a policy byproduct of it. Members will see much change there in the coming weeks.

I do not want to comment on NPWS because we are dealing with the fodder issue today. If Deputy Mattie McGrath knows of farmers who are going into banks and are not getting a service or the support they need, I need to hear about it and we will follow up on it. As I said before, I take seriously and at face value the commitments I have received from banks. I appreciate that commitment because it is significant and I encourage farmers to test that. If it is not happening as it should, I need to hear about it and we will take a very public and critical line on banks if they do not follow through on the promises they have made to me.